2017 Volume 26 Pages 88-99
The purpose of this study is to compare teachers’ decision making when students express their negative emotions in two class settings: individual instruction and group instruction. One elementary school teacher and second grade students in his class participated in this study.
Regarding the methodology of this study, in total 21 cases concerning students’ negative emotional expressions were collected through participant observation. The teacher’s decision making in each case was then examined through a stimulated-recall interview. The data collected from interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach.
The results demonstrated that there were two stages in the decision making. The first stage was a process of identifying objectives in which the teacher recognized multiple goals to solve students’ problems in each case. In the individual instruction settings, more emphasis was placed on the individual students, and the teacher tended to identify objectives to increase understanding of others and to improve emotion regulations. By contrast, in the group instruction settings, more attention was devoted to the reactions of other students in the class, and the objectives inclined toward the development of students’ communication abilities and clarification of class rules. The second stage was a process of adjusting objectives. In the individual instruction settings, the teacher modified objectives by monitoring students’ emotion regulation. In the group instruction settings, the adjustments of objectives were more influenced by obligations to coordinate classes.
The study was successful in dissecting the teacher’s decision making into specific stages and in showing how it was influenced in each stage depending on the different settings. Moreover, the study demonstrated the importance of adjusting objectives by focusing not only on the emotions of individual students but also taking class settings, in which emotional support is expected of teachers into consideration.
